For the past six years, System of a Down guitarist Daron Malakian has been sitting on an entire album with no plans of releasing it. He recorded it entirely himself with the intention of putting it out under the name Scars on Broadway, a side band he launched during System’s mid-2000s hiatus, but he shelved it when the other band started up again in case they needed songs for their own new LP. With the realization that System of a Down won’t be recording anytime soon, Malakian tells Rolling Stonehe’ll release a 12-song record under the Scars on Broadway moniker this summer.
He’s now previewing the album, Dictator, due July 20th, with a giddy, bouncy new single called “Lives, ” which is meant to commemorate the Armenian Genocide and celebrate its survivors. “All of our lives we’ve put up a fight, all heroes have died, ” he sings in his trademark, almost operatic way. “All of our lives we’ve known wrong from right, our people survived.”
“I’m Armenian, so I wanted to do something for Armenian people – especially since April 24th is the day we remember the genocide, ” he says, noting the date the country recognizes as the start to the genocide propagated by Ottoman Turks in 1915. “It’s about being proud that people did survive the genocide, and it’s not just for Armenian people. It could be for anybody whose people have suffered that type of thing, such as Native Americans.”
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He’s also using the song to effect positive change to survivors of the genocide. Half of the proceeds from purchases of the song on iTunes will go to sending first-aid kits to Artsakh, a republic populated mostly by Armenians that borders Iran and Azerbaijan. “There was supposed to be a cease fire, but the Azeri government does not follow that all the time, so there’s a lot of women and children that get caught in the middle of all this, and I really wanted to send some first aid kits out to Armenians that are living there, ” he says, referring to the conflict between the country and Azerbaijan. “It’s very possible that another genocide can happen, so I really want to bring attention to what’s happening there and keep that from happening.”
For me, it’s about how Armenian people have survived the genocide. I’ve always heard about how we were victims, and we always saw pictures of our ancestors and our great grandparents with their heads chopped off. I wanted to write a song that would be a morale booster, something uplifting and let people know that while there were a lot of people that died and we should respect that, there was also a lot of people who survived. It’s a tribute to that and how far we’ve come. The video complements the song really well.
We feature a lot of traditional, old Armenian folk dancing that matches the song. My father, aside from being an artist – he did the first Scars album cover and [System’s] Mezmerize and Hypnotize albums – was a pretty well known choreographer in Iraq before they family moved to the United States. It’s always been a part of my life. When I wrote the song, I always pictured the video with this style of dance [and] costumes. It’s also another way to boost morale and have us look at our culture and be proud of our culture. When people think of Armenians, they think of genocide. I don’t want to be looked at as a victim forever. I want to show people other parts of our culture, and this video does that.
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You played the public square in Yerevan, Armenia on the 100th anniversary of the genocide with System of a Down. How did that feel?
That was a high point of my career as a musician. I think everyone in System of a Down feels that way. The show was great and really emotional for us.
No, I’ve only been there once. I was there for four, five days. It was long enough to see some statues and monuments and things like that. It was really emotional for me, because I had grandparents who were born there but then had to move to Iraq because of the genocide. They’re not around anymore, but I could just feel their spirit with me when I was flying into Armenia and onstage. It was pretty emotional.
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President Trump has been outspoken in his support of Jerusalem and Israel. Do you think he would take a similar stance and recognize the Armenian genocide?
No, I don’t see Trump doing that. The United States has a relationship with Turkey. It’s a political relationship, and I guess they don’t want to offend Turkey. But the relationship has been a little shaky lately. There are American politicians that have come out and say they recognize the genocide, but I guess I get why it doesn’t happen. We need Turkey to be an ally in that region.
Yeah, it’s tough as an Armenian. I have a line in the song that says, “We are the people that were kicked out of history.” And that’s a reference to all of that. I didn’t grow up seeing the genocide in my history books. It was almost like they erased that part of history. For Armenians, it’s frustrating. It’s affected our healing. With “Lives, ” I want to help with the healing.
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Let’s talk about the Dictator album. You were teasing it back in 2012. I recorded the album and then around that time System started playing live again. So every time we’d play live, there’d be conversations like, “Maybe we’ll do an album.” So being the guy who wrote the majority of almost all the System songs in the past, I was like, “All right, let me see what’s happening with it. Let me hold onto these songs and let me see how this develops.” We talked about it and we weren’t all on the same page. Not everybody was into the idea. But every time we played live, it kept coming up.
I just got to the point now where a lot of people were asking about the Scars album – I hear it all the time – so I was like, “I’m gonna put this album out.” Not knowing what’s happening with System has kept me from putting my own stuff out. Too much time has passed, and I’m really excited to finally get some music out finally.
Yeah. I played everything on it. I went into the studio and recorded an album in less than 10 days. I played all the instruments – the drums, everything – and I’ve just been sitting on it for six years [laughs].
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Why did you want to record everything yourself? System drummer John Dolmayan was on your first album. I realized it was better for me to just go off and get started on my own. John was not involved anymore when I recorded the album. It just seemed easier for me than to put together a group of musicians and teach them the parts.
Yes, but this album has more of a System flavor to it than the first Scars on Broadway did. There were songs on the first Scars album, like “Stoner Hate” and “Babylon” that could have easily been System of a Down songs, too, but there were also songs that leaned a little more on the rock side. This album has that rock flavor as well, but it has more of a System of a Down flavor, too, because System has more of the metal tones going on there.
I don’t know. When you hear System of a Down, a lot of it is my signature. No matter what I write, you’re going to hear those colors. It’s something that comes out that way.
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Is it weird for you to be putting this out six years later? You’ve had to have grown so much as an artist since then.
I wish it didn’t take six years. One regret I have is not putting out any music for as long as I have, but it’s not really weird because the style is still there. It’s still part of my signature, even with the stuff I write now. I’m going to put out a third Scars album soon, as well. I’ve written a lot of songs for it, and I’m rehearsing with the band, and in the next four months or so we’ll hopefully go into the studio.
No, it’s not abandoned. But as of right now, not everyone is on the same page. Trust me, man, I’m probably the biggest System of a Down fan in the world. I mean, I named the band [laughs]. So I’d like to see something like that happen.
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But we’re all friends. We all still go out. We play the songs live. We enjoy it. But doing an album is a totally different thing than playing the songs we already have live. It takes a little bit more togetherness, a little bit more commitment from everybody, and I’m not sure
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